Deer Genetics and Antlers
11-27-2006, 10:39 AM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 122
Deer Genetics and Antlers
My son got his first buck Thanksgiving day. 
Can't describe the excitement. Better than getting my first deer. I was shaking worse than he was.We now have anew hopelessly addicted deer hunter in the family.
My question is about this deer's antlers. The ranch I hunt on is working with the OK Wildlife department to develop a quality deer herd.(not high fenced)
The buck my son killed had a beautiful left side with 3 points and a broken eye guard. The main beam was 22in long and the base was 5 1/2 inches. The right side was a 8in spike 5 1/4 in in diameter at the base. It was not broken off, the whole spike is knotted and grown over. There have been two other deer seen in the areathat have this same type of rack. I'm concerned that we have some genetics in the heard that are causing this. The ranch manager seems to think that it's not genetics and that the deer's head was injured at some point causing it to have permanent retarded antler growth on that side. Anybody with some knowledge on the subject know if this would be genetics or an injury. If it's genetics we're gona start trying to take out the other bucks that look like this one did.
Can't describe the excitement. Better than getting my first deer. I was shaking worse than he was.We now have anew hopelessly addicted deer hunter in the family. My question is about this deer's antlers. The ranch I hunt on is working with the OK Wildlife department to develop a quality deer herd.(not high fenced)
The buck my son killed had a beautiful left side with 3 points and a broken eye guard. The main beam was 22in long and the base was 5 1/2 inches. The right side was a 8in spike 5 1/4 in in diameter at the base. It was not broken off, the whole spike is knotted and grown over. There have been two other deer seen in the areathat have this same type of rack. I'm concerned that we have some genetics in the heard that are causing this. The ranch manager seems to think that it's not genetics and that the deer's head was injured at some point causing it to have permanent retarded antler growth on that side. Anybody with some knowledge on the subject know if this would be genetics or an injury. If it's genetics we're gona start trying to take out the other bucks that look like this one did.
11-27-2006, 12:15 PM
#2
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Missouri
Posts: 1,429
RE: Deer Genetics and Antlers
If multiple deer have been seen with the same "defects" I would say that it is a gentic issue. Where I hunt there is a definate "tall racked 8 point" genetics. Every year we either see or kill Bucks that look identical to ones from previous years. The same racks. Even down to the G3 on the right side is nearly as long as the G2, but on the left side the G3 is shorter than the G2 like you would expect.I've side by side compared bucks from multiple years and they are nearly identical.This is clearly genetics. It wouldn't be a far stretch for me to believe that your scenario is genetic.
